On Saturday night, a five-person team of the Chinese e-sports club, with the full name EDward Gaming,
With the popularity of digital technology, new forms of cultural exchanges have been emerging, of which e-sports are of the
As early as 2019, Hainan province announced its plan of building
2 . Nowadays, parents are increasingly using an existing technology, home security systems, to keep eyes on their home-alone children. In the early days of home security, the systems basically were designed to just keep the bad guys out.
★ Every child should memorize his or her own full name and address, and home, work and cell phone numbers of each parent.
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★ Be sure your child knows how to disarm（解除）and arm your home security system. Program your control panel to give you a message when your child enters or leaves the house, and arms or disarms the system.
To learn more about home security systems that can help parents protect their home-alone children, visit www. Protect America. com.
| A．Also keep this information posted next to the phone at home. |
| B．Home-alone children should be taught to use the system. |
| C．Teach your child to observe things around when returns to the house. |
| D．You and your child should work together to use the home security systems. |
| E．If your child forgets to rearm the system, you can call him or her with a personal reminder. |
| F．Warn your child never to answer the doorbell or telephone when they are home alone. |
| G．Now, many parents are also using them to make their children safely stay in the house. |
3 . The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer simple questions and control smart appliances. Even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are being widely used in smart phones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2 billion commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touch screens, were welcomed as much easier ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for a “user interface(界面)” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, more powerful than people can imagine today.
Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is sure to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computer’s new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation (证明) of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial intelligence technique in which a software system is trained to use millions of examples, usually selected from the Internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerized translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms.
Although deep learning means that machines can recognize speech more reliably and talk in a more natural manner, they still don’t understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off (一次性的) voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies are working on this problem, building “bots” that can hold more detailed conversations about more complex tasks, from searching information to making travel arrangements.
Many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated(激活). Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected microphones listening in every room and from every smart phone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud - devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start passing the user’s voice to the servers that actually handle the requests - but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.
1. According to Paragraph l, the Amazon Echo ________.| A．has been sold out before Christmas |
| B．has been used by most American families |
| C．came on the market later than Apple’s Siri |
| D．is more useful than smart phones in dictating e-mails |
| A．It is vital to accurate identification of human voices. |
| B．It is almost the same as the computer-dictation system. |
| C．It has helped machines understand the meaning of language. |
| D．It has helped machines beat humans in accuracy and reliability. |
| A．The devices will be in charge of their life. |
| B．The devices need to be activated before working. |
| C．They are in the dark about their data’s ownership. |
| D．Their voices can be recognized by every smart phone. |
| A．Worried. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
4 . In the summer of 2016, I gave a talk at a small conference in northern Virginia. I began by admitting that I’d never had a social-media account; I then outlined arguments for why other people should consider removing social media from their lives. The event organizers uploaded the video of my talk to YouTube. Then it was shared repeatedly on Facebook and Instagram and, eventually, viewed more than five million times. I was both pleased and annoyed by the fact that my anti-social-media talk had found such a large audience on social media.
I think of this event as typical of the conflicted relationships many of us have with Facebook, Instagram, and other social-media platforms. On the one hand, we’ve grown wary of the so-called attention economy, which, in the name of corporate profits, destroys social life gradually and offends privacy. But we also benefit from social media and hesitate to break away from it completely. Not long ago, I met a partner at a large law firm in Washington, D.C., who told me that she keeps Instagram on her phone because she misses her kids when she travels; looking through pictures of them makes her feel better.
In recent months, some of the biggest social-media companies, Facebook and Twitter, in particular, have promised various reforms. In March, Mark Zuckerberg announced a plan to move his platform toward private communication protected by end-to-end encryption (端对端加密); later that month, he put forward the establishment of a third-party group to set standards for acceptable content.
All of these approaches assume that the reformation of social media will be a complex, lengthy, and gradual process. But not everyone sees it that way. Alongside these official responses, a loose collective of developers that calls itself the IndieWeb has been creating another alternative. They are developing their own social-media platforms, which they say will preserve what’s good about social media while getting rid of what’s bad. They hope to rebuild social media according to principles that are less corporate and more humane.
1. Why did the author feel annoyed when his video was spread online?| A．His video caused many arguments. |
| B．His video was shared without his permission. |
| C．His talk was opposed by a large amount of people. |
| D．His video’s popularity on social media is against his talk. |
| A．To prove that social media has some benefits. |
| B．To advise people to break away from social media. |
| C．To tell the negative effects social media may produce. |
| D．To describe people’s conflicted relationships with social media. |
| A．To attract more users. |
| B．To make more profits. |
| C．To improve network environment. |
| D．To provide more convenient service. |
| A．Develop new social-media platforms. |
| B．Set up principles of the use of social media. |
| C．Improve the existing social-media platforms. |
| D．Help social-media companies to make reformation. |
5 . All networks like 3G and 4G will be things of the past, because 5G will be reachable in the near future. So, what’s so special about a 5G future? First of all, its download speed can be as fast as 20GB/s, which is 100 to 200 times that of 4G. But what’s more impressive is 5G’s low delay rate. Now, 4G takes an average of 200 milliseconds(毫秒) to send and receive information. But 5G will get it down to 1 millisecond.
5G is a great breakthrough. It’s going to change the way equipment connects to the Internet, and more importantly, to each other. And self-driving cars may be one of the biggest breakthroughs to come out of 5G. Human reaction time is 200 milliseconds, yet we still have accidents every day. The self-driving car under a 5G network could react and communicate its reaction to hundreds of cars around it, all within 1 millisecond. It’ll play a great role in preventing car accidents and ending traffic jams completely.
5G can benefit us in many other ways.Operations could be performed by robots controlled by experts from the other side of the world. Therefore, more lives will be saved in time. Factories can be staffed by robots that can communicate their tasks to each other, and they can do more work efficiently over a 5G network. Imagine a group of drones(无人机) flying over a field of crops, using sensors(传感器) on the ground to sort, pick, feed, and water plants all on their own. Then farmers won’t have to work so hard anymore.
However, 5G is not perfect. One major disadvantage has to do with why it’s so fast. 5G uses the millimeter waves, while 4G uses the 15 to 40 centimeter-long waves. And shorter waves go fast but not very far.On 4G networks, the signal can go 10 kilometers. But the 5G signal can go at most 300 meters, and it can’t even go through walls or rain. So, what does that mean? Having such a short signal distance means we need to build a lot of transmitters(信号发射塔) in the future.
1. How does the author show us 5G’s advantages in Paragraph 1?| A．By giving examples of the uses of 5G. |
| B．By making comparisons between 4G and 5G. |
| C．By explaining the scientific principles of 5G. |
| D．By analyzing 5G’s development from 4G. |
| A．cause more car accidents |
| B．slow down 5G’s development |
| C．run without being connected to the Internet |
| D．have a much faster reaction speed than humans |
| A．Be built by robots. |
| B．Have robots as workers. |
| C．Offer employees home robots. |
| D．Produce more medical robots. |
| A．The main weakness of 5G networks. |
| B．How to make 4G networks more perfect. |
| C．The types of long waves and short waves. |
| D．How to improve the signal of mobile phones. |
6 . Today's personal computers are very different from the huge machines that were born during World War II-and the difference isn't only in their size. By the 1970s, these early PCs could not perform many of the tasks that today's computers can. Users could only do mathematical calculations(数学计算) and play simple games. Today PCs are used in many different kinds of ways. At home and at work, we use our PCs to do almost everything. It is nearly impossible to imagine modern life without them.
The earliest computers were not "personal" in any way: They were large and expensive, and they required a team of engineers and other experts to keep them running. One of the first and most famous of these, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), was built at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC cost ﹩500, 000, weighed 30 tons and took up nearly 2, 000 square feet of floor space.
ENIAC and other early computers proved that the machines were worth so much money, space and manpower they needed. For example, ENIAC could solve in 30 seconds a problem that could take a team of human "computers" 12 hours to complete. At the same time, new technologies were making it possible to build smaller computers.
But one of the most important of the inventions that make way for the PC revolution was the microprocessor(微处理器). Microprocessors were the size of a nail. They could run the computer's programs, remember information and manage data(数据) all by themselves.
These new ideas made it cheaper and easier to produce computers than ever before. As a result, the smaller, cheaper "microcomputer"-soon known as the "personal computer"-was born. Today, portable computers, smart phones and ipads allow us to have a PC with us wherever we go.
1. What's mainly talked about in the first paragraph? ______| A．An even more relaxing lifestyle without PCs. |
| B．PCs can be made full use of to do everything. |
| C．Differences between modern and early PCs. |
| D．The difficult situation of PCs being born. |
| A．It was easy to control them. | B．They took up too much room. |
| C．Nobody could afford one. | D．They were built by universities. |
| A．To predict high technology will make computers smaller. |
| B．To show computers are really smarter than human beings. |
| C．To explain why computers could deal with any problem. |
| D．To prove spending money on early computers was meaningful. |
| A．Microprocessors. | B．Programs. | C．Money. | D．Imagination. |
7 . It’s that time of the year again, when Apple fans go crazy about the release (发行) of the new iPhone. The new model, which will be released in the Chinese mainland later this year, is a little bit longer than the iPhone4S.
Although the size changed, the model is actually thinner and lighter than last one. It comes with a high-resolution “retina” screen that’s sharper than the 4S, according to Apple.
So far, demand for the iPhone5 has been higher than expected (预计的), with 2 million pre-orders (预定) made in the first 24 hours. But while the new phone excited many people, it also left a lot of people disappointed (失望). Mat Honan called the iPhone5 “completely amazing and very boring”. “Though we’ve reached the sixth iPhone, things have got so good that Apple does not change very much any more,” he said. “And so you get the iPhone5, which looks like a longer, thinner one of the iPhone4.”
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2006, it won praise from all over the world. Similar praise was given to Apple when it introduced the first iPad in 2010.
However, recent smart-phone designs have failed to satisfy people as much. Stephen Shankland said “it’s time to lower your expectations (期望).” This is because we have entered a time where it is harder for phone designers to come up with better ideas and changes. It could be some time before someone comes up with the next big idea.
1. Apple fans are going crazy because of______.| A．the size of the new phone | B．the release of iPhone5 |
| C．the length of the new phone | D．the sharper screen |
| A．size | B．screen |
| C．weight | D．colour |
| A．The iPhone5 is known to few people in the Chinese mainland. |
| B．The iPhone5 hasn't won the same praise as the first iPhone. |
| C．So far, two million people have pre-ordered the iPhone5. |
| D．People don’t have any expectations for the coming iPhone6. |
| A．has not improved much | B．has nothing amazing |
| C．is not as good as the iPhone4S | D．looks more beautiful |
| A．The iPhone in 2006 and the first iPad were failures in the end. |
| B．There is still a long way to go to design a better iPhone. |
| C．The new iPhone5 impressed lots of people and was popular. |
| D．Stephen Shankland thought the iPhone5 is good enough. |
8 . As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1. The passage begins with two questions to ________.| A．introduce the main topic | B．show the author’s attitude |
| C．describe how to use the Internet | D．explain how to store information |
| A．Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer. |
| B．The two groups remembered the information equally well. |
| C．The first group did not try to remember the formation. |
| D．The second group did not understand the information. |
| A．keep the information in mind |
| B．change the quantity of information |
| C．organize information like a computer |
| D．remember how to find the information |
| A．We are using memory differently. |
| B．We are becoming more intelligent. |
| C．We have poorer memories than before. |
| D．We need a better way to access information. |
